The Hill News

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said President Obama's calls for the Senate to quickly hold a vote on his American Jobs Act legislation lacks "validity."

McCain criticized Obama for calling on the Senate to hold a vote on the bill and then, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to put it up, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used a procedural maneuver to block it. McCain said Obama's calls for the Senate to pass the bill now after McConnell tried to bring it up for a vote showed Obama's efforts lacked "validity."

Since Obama unveiled the legislation in early September, he has called on Congress to move swiftly to put the bill into law.

"You want to pass it now? Or do you want to pass it later? So this whole routine of the president's just lacks validity," McCain said Thursday on Bloomberg.tv.

McConnell's effort to put the legislation up for a vote appeared to be an attempt to embarrass Obama and the Dem! ocrats since at the time it wasn't clear whether there were enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill and beat a filibuster.

Earlier this week Democrats modified the jobs legislation with a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires as a way to pay for aspects of the bill such as infrastructure spending, an extension of the employee payroll tax cut and added unemployment insurance benefits. The bill also establishes a national infrastructure bank. The surtax is likely meant to attract senators who are on the fence over the legislation. The original version of the bill proposed tax hikes on American families making more than $250,000 a year as well as ending tax loopholes for big oil-and-gas companies.

On Thursday, Obama said the Senate would vote on the legislation next week.